CHINA'S DENG IN TOP SHAPE

China's 81-year-old leader, Deng Xiaoping, said he has not suffered from a cold in 10 years, and attributed his good health to cold baths in the mornings. But he continues to be a chain-smoker. New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange, now a non-smoker, commented on this during talks Friday. Turning down Deng's offer of an elite Chinese Panda-brand cigarette, Lange pointed out, "if you smoke Panda cigarettes, it's easier to give it up."

SCOTT TO BE AN AGING HUCK

George C. Scott, 58, will play Huckleberry Finn in the play The Boys in Autumn, which opens on Broadway April 30.

MARLO LIGHTENS UP HER LOAD

Actress Marlo Thomas just finished work on the CBS-TV film Nobody's Child, the story of Marie Balter, a woman who spent 20 years in mental institutions before earning a master's degree from Harvard. Now the actress feels it's time to lighten up and is working in the Broadway play Social Security in New York. "You can't go to work everyday and work with demons and then come home," Thomas said. "So now, I mean I go to work and people laugh in the theater and we're all very jolly backstage. It's a great relief."

BLACK SABBATH BOWS OUT

A Good Friday concert by the heavy-metal rock group Black Sabbath at the Glens Falls, N.Y., Civic Center was canceled following demonstrations by church leaders who claim the group is satanic. Civic center director Jack Kelly said the band made the decision to cancel, but did not give a reason. Kelly noted advance ticket sales for the concert were poor.